Green Carnation have now managed the impressive feat of releasing 4 albums and having all four sound different from each other, which is certainly impressive with so many bands out there content to rest on their laurels and have their new album sounding remarkably similar to their previous one.

This time it is a slightly less drastic change from the previous album than previous Green Carnation albums have tended to be, and this album actually does the sound like they are the same band that recorded their previous album “A Blessing in Disguise”.

One of the things that “A Blessing in Disguise” introduced to the Green Carnation sound was a willingness to incorporate more mainstream “rock” sounds and moods to their music, and “The Quiet Offspring” continues this trend. In terms of sound, this does sound like the perfect Metal album to recommend to fans of more mainstream rock to try, while remaining a little too heavy, too atmospheric and too progressive to actually be mainstream, and in complete contradiction to my previous statement, I don’t think that the songs on this album are quite as catchy as those on “A Blessing in Disguise” were. In true progressive style the album’s best bits are not really noticed by the first time or casual listener, and I found that it took a few extra listens to really get into. In fact, if I had only had one opportunity to listen to it before writing this review I would have been telling you all about how much of a disappointment it was and giving it a much lower score, which would have been an eternal embarrassment to me as this album is great.

It is stating the bloody obvious to say that there is no such thing as an album that will appeal to everyone, and I think that the main barrier that Green Carnation will face here is not with the quality of the material, but with the fact that it is most likely to be heard by those who are least likely to be enthusiastic about the direction that they are progressing in. What most of Green Carnation’s existing fanbase want is a return to the sound that they had on their classic “Light of Day, Day of Darkness” one 60 minute song album, and it should be noted that this album delivers almost the exact opposite. I also don’t expect this to appeal to any but the most open minded fans of various band members’ more extreme and better known bands (Carpathian Forest, Blood Red Throne, and Trail of Tears among others), or to fans of their label Season of Mist’s other generally more extreme bands.

The people that I think that this is an album that would appeal to are fans of bands such as A Perfect Circle, or the later material of bands like Anathema, Katatonia, or Amorphis, not because it sounds like those bands but because this album tends to press much the same buttons that they do. If this is you, or if you have any interest at all in hearing top quality melodic and progressive Metal or Rock then do yourself a favour and get this album. Just make sure that you give it several listens before reaching an opinion on it.

Standout Tracks:  The Everlasting Moment, Pile of Doubt, Childs Play (1 & 2).

Overall Score:   9 /10